Delta-sigma (Δ-Σ) modulators, sometimes referred to as sigma-delta (Σ-Δ) modulators, encode higher resolution signals into lower resolution signals. Delta-sigma modulators have found increasing use in a range of modern electronic components, such as digital-to-analog converters (DACs), analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and frequency synthesizers. For example, delta-sigma modulators have been proposed or suggested for directly synthesizing RF signals from information carrying digital base band signals.
Delta-sigma modulators typically quantize an input signal and determine a quantization error by comparing the input signal to the quantized output value. The quantization error is often assumed to be uncorrelated to the input signal. More typically, however, the error signal is correlated to the input. Thus, the delta-sigma modulator may suffer from noise coloration due to the correlation of the quantization noise with the input signal, particularly for low resolution quantizers.
A need therefore exists for techniques to reduce the correlation between the quantization noise and the input signal, without significantly degrading the signal to noise ratio.